EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

Predictive analytics can help an organisation to forecast future outcomes based on historical data and analytics techniques such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence . What are the benefits of implementing analytics in an enterprise organisation ?

category of data analytics aimed at making predictions about future outcomes based on historical data and analytics techniques such as statistical modelling and Machine Learning . The science of predictive analytics can generate future insights with a significant degree of precision . With the help of sophisticated predictive analytics tools and models , any organisation in the Middle East can now use past and current data to reliably forecast trends and behaviours milliseconds , days or years into the future .

According to MarketResearch . com , the Middle East Big Data , business intelligence and analytics market is projected to grow from US $ 5.09 billion in 2015 to US $ 12.38 billion by 2020 growing at a compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 19.4 %.

The regional trend proves that both the government and the private sector are currently depending on numerous emerging IT technologies and solutions , such as Big Data , business intelligence and analytics to support infrastructural developments , improve healthcare services , efficiently manage available natural resources , and mitigate risks and disasters .

Ahmad Dorra , Customer Engagement Solutions Sales Leader – Middle East , Africa and Turkey , Avaya , said analytics plays an essential role in everything that organisations , of any kind , do .

“ It enables them to measure how their business is doing today , identify areas of enhancement related to their products , services and employees , as well as forecast what their customers will demand in the future . For example , when launching a new strategy or vision for the future , analytics helps businesses to understand their market and what their customers are looking for through social media or by analysing the feedback customers leave during their interactions with call centres ,” he said .

Feras Juma , IoT and Integration Solutions Manager , Software AG , said analytics across the whole spectrum ( visual , streaming and predictive ) has become a core requirement that the market is seeing many customer requests in 2020 .

“ Unified visibility , industrial real time monitoring and visualisation , predictive maintenance , anomaly detection are all few examples of use cases we have received which reflect the increasing demand and level of customer maturity looking for advanced analytical capabilities in order to stay competitive in a very difficult and highly saturated market ,” he said .

Dr Mohammad Mahmoud Hamdan , Associate Professor of Computer Sciences , School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences , Heriot-Watt University Dubai , said from a regional perspective , the GCC governments have already established bold plans to position themselves at the forefront of the digital revolution .

“ Most GCC countries have acknowledged the importance of Big Data to unlock the possibilities . To date , some of these countries remain in the strategizing phase and are working on developing concrete applications ,” he said .

Hamdan added that the Middle East banking sector is using predictive data analytics to strengthen their risk assessment , generate revenue and build fresh ventures by understanding the market conditions .

“ Other sectors such as oil and gas , tourism and pharma are also following suit and joining forces with Big Data investments . Be it the UAE ’ s Ministry of Energy launching an oil and gas Big Data project or leveraging technology to boost insulin production ( a proven case study of Julphar – a UAE based Pharma Company ), data has become indispensable ,” he explained .

32 INTELLIGENTCIO www . intelligentcio . com